PROUD Academy Wins State Approval For Ansonia Charter School

ANSONIA – The state Board of Education approved the establishment of a charter school in Ansonia on Jan. 15.

Ansonia native Patricia Nicolari established PROUD Academy as a nonprofit in 2021. According to its mission statement, the school seeks to provide an education for LGBTQ+ students that allows them to ​“thrive as evolving learners and as their most authentic selves within a safe, affirming and student-centered learning community.”

The school plans to open in September 2026 at the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley at 28 Howard Ave. Whether that will happen is still up in the air – state legislators will need to approve funding for the school before it can move forward.

The students may come from the region, not just Ansonia alone.

It plans to operate as a middle school, starting with 50 sixth-graders in its first year of operation and eventually taking in 150 total students between sixth and eighth grade by year three. It plans to operate tuition-free, according to Nicolari.

PROUD Academy intends to accept students from across Connecticut. Nicolari said she has received interest in the school from families as far away as Florida.

The state school board approved four other charter schools throughout the state on Jan. 15, in Stamford, New Haven, and Waterbury.

Public Hearings Draw Dozens In Support

Two public hearings were held for residents and officials to give input on the school, on Dec. 19 and Jan. 7. At each hearing, more than 20 people spoke in support of the school, according to the state board. No one spoke in opposition to it.

Barb Elwood, a high school teacher from Milford, said she wished she had a school like PROUD Academy growing up.

“As a high school English teacher and a lesbian, I would be honored to one day teach in the school that Patty and her board have created,” Elwood said. ​“When I was a student in high school in 1984, I found myself very conflicted. I felt one way on the inside, but the society I was growing up in dictated that I live an entirely different life.”

She said the school is a chance to show that times have changed since then.

“To simply be in high school is hard. Being yourself shouldn’t be. Therefore, it’s time for all of us to give teenagers who are gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer, or even just questioning themselves a voice, the voice I never had,” Elwood said.

Other speakers pointed to statistics showing that LGBTQ+ teenagers are at higher risk of suicide attempts, and that that risk has only increased as state legislatures across the country have targeted transgender youth in recent years. 

John Feddern, who lives in Ansonia and works as the Democratic Registrar of Voters, said that the school would be a barrier against those risks.

“One of the things that bothered me most was when I would hear certain people talk about the gay community as an abomination. That is a very tough word to hear. That is a very tough word to accept when all you want to do is love who you want to love. Having this school in the community, we’re going to be able to ensure that, not all of course, but a good number of the kids that need this support to get them through this time in their lives, which is going to be very tough – we’ll get them the best education they can possibly have,” Feddern said.

Other speakers in support included former Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, Stephen G. Ray Jr. of the United Church on the Green in New Haven, and Ansonia Board of Education member Stephanie Ocasio-Gonzalez.

The state board’s review of the charter school’s application said that its curriculum is strong and aligns with Connecticut standards.

“There is a clear plan and demonstration of the commitment to high quality instruction through evidence-based practices, such as school-wide academic systems, interventions and accessibility at all levels, and a comprehensive tiered framework approach,” the review states.

The Need In Connecticut

PROUD Academy would be the first school of its kind – one centered around providing an open and affirming space for LGBTQ+ students – in Connecticut. However, there are a few other schools with a similar model in other states.

The Albert Einstein Academy of Ohio opened its doors in 2013 with a mission to provide an affirming space for marginalized communities. In Birmingham, Alabama, the Magic City Acceptance Academy opened in 2021 and now provides education to over 300 students, nearly half of whom identify as LGBTQ+.

The principals from those schools joined forces with Nicolari in 2022 to create the National LGBTQ+ Ally Schools Partnership Agreement, a partnership to enable better communication among schools with a similar mission.

The other members of that agreement include Harvey Milk High School in Manhattan and The Alliance School of Milwaukee.

Support for the PROUD Academy is also well-entrenched in Ansonia’s city government. Mayor David Cassetti has repeatedly stated his support for the school, and Alderman Steven Adamowski – also a former school superintendent in Hartford and Norwalk – was one of the speakers in support at the Jan. 7 hearing.

However, teachers’ unions have voiced some concerns.

At a school board meeting in October, Ansonia Federation of Teachers President Mathew Hough said that the need isn’t there for a school of its kind in Ansonia. He said the public school district is already welcoming to all of its students, regardless of their identities.

In a phone call with The Valley Indy that month, Hough said that charter schools place extra financial strain on public school districts. Public school districts are responsible for the cost of transporting students to charter schools from out-of-district, according to the School + State Finance Project, a state policy organization.

The state teachers’ union, the Connecticut Education Association, also wrote a press release opposing the school after it was approved by the state board. The release also opposed the four other charter schools that were approved on Jan. 15.

“The selective pattern of charter school enrollment makes for less equitable learning environments for every child,” the release quotes educational issues specialist Elizabeth Sked as saying. ​“We urge board members to question whether continuing down this path is in the best interest of all students.”

However, Nicolari – who herself came out as lesbian while teaching in Ansonia in 1997 – has said that the need is strong for affirming schools in Connecticut as it is in other states. She said at the public hearing that, while Connecticut laws may have better protections for LGBTQ+ students, school climate surveys tell a different story.

In a phone call, Nicolari also pointed out that The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization, reported a 700 percent spike in phone calls to their hotline after election day.

Board chair Robert Rader – also a former executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education – wrote an editorial in the Hartford Courant describing the need for the school in the current political environment.

The application cites a 2019 study from policy and advocacy group Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network which found that nearly half of Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ students had faced some form of anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the last year.

Addressing The Past

Nicolari was formerly the principal of Pine Academy, an alternative education program in the Ansonia school district. She resigned in 2009 after ordering a questionable search of students.

That incident resulted in a lawsuit against the school district, which was settled out of court in 2010. Nicolari told The Valley Indy on Jan. 23 that the incident was misrepresented in the media.

“In my past position as principal of the Ansonia alternative education program, I, and my staff, regularly dealt with specific threats of violence against us and other students, weapons and drug possessions, and other difficult and complex issues,” Nicolari wrote in a prepared statement. ​“Those of us in education make many decisions every day about school safety, often on an urgent basis. That was even more true at that program.”

She said that resigning was ​“a very sad and difficult decision that she made,” and that the incident was in the past.

“This happened 16 years ago and should not be a distraction from my role to help LGBTQ+ youth,” Nicolari said.

Next Steps

PROUD Academy needs state funding before it can open. That could come during this year’s legislative session, although no specific legislation has been proposed yet.

The Connecticut General Assembly’s session opened on Jan. 8, and it will run until June 4.

Nicolari told The Valley Indy that funding will also be dependent on the decisions of the Trump presidential administration. She said she doesn’t know how that will shake out, saying that the Republican Party has a record of both supporting charter schools and opposing LGBTQ+ rights.

“Hopefully some good comes out of what feels like a very grim situation,” Nicolari said.

After opening, PROUD Academy intends to use the Boys & Girls Club as a temporary home, according to its application to the state board. By 2028, it’s hoping to move to either 126 Ford St. – currently the site of a former nursing home – or 36 Jewett Ave., the home of the former St. Joseph’s School.